


Gathering Darkness

by Tarlan



Category: Darklight (2004)
Genre: Angst, Community: smallfandomfest, Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-13
Updated: 2008-12-13
Packaged: 2017-10-15 07:33:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/158517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lilith spares the life of the Demonicos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gathering Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SmallFandomFest FEST04 - prompt Darklight, Anders/Shaw, Sympathy for the devil

Chapel had lied when he told them the Demonicos could be destroyed only by Darklight, that it was immune to Talos, but then Chapel had lied about a lot of things. He'd lied about there being no vaccine for the Red Plague, and he'd lied about his faith, betraying every single person on the planet with his desire for revenge on Lilith.

In contrast, Lilith had told the truth of how she had cornered the Demonicos, caught like a fly in a spider's sticky web. She knew they needed the head of the Demonicos in order to create a cure for the plague from the fluid in its brain. It was the only way to save those already infected, and they had already numbered in the thousands with more becoming infected with every passing second. Instead of giving them the head, she gave them the entire body. She gave them the living creature with its sharp-toothed mouth sealed to stop it using its proboscis to maim, infect and kill. Will Shaw knew from the dreams she shared with him that she had seen herself infusing a storm drain cover with her Darklight, intending to slice off the defenseless creature's head to hand to The Faith on a platter. In her dreams, the head of the Demonicos had rolled across the ground while its body slumped in death. With thousands of years of life behind her, he knew she sometimes couldn't tell if the visions were memories or nightmares.

In this case it was just a dream.

Will had dreams too; dreams where he took revenge against Lilith for the death of his son, dreams where he carried on shooting the Talos wood into her demonic form until he had neutralized all the Darklight in her body, sending her to her death. There was a time when he had shared that dream with Chapel, with both of them wanting to see an end to Lilith's wrath, see it written in her ebbing life force. Chapel had tried to make that dream his reality, betraying everything The Faith believed in, and Anders Raeborne had become his unwitting pawn in a quest for revenge that would have destroyed all life on Earth.

Will stared at the monitor as Anders, in human form, paced around the small cell. His body was shaking like a drug addict craving his next fix, arms wrapped tight around his naked torso. The sheen of sweat shone from his skin, darkening the sparse curls on his chest, and Raeborne hugged himself tighter as another shudder ran through his ever-weakening body.

"Without the Darklight, he won't survive much longer." The Prefect stopped beside Will and reached out to touch the image of the stricken man on the screen. "And yet, we cannot give him Darklight for with it, he will become the Demonicos once more."

"The Plague?"

"Is no longer of such great concern. Both the cure and the vaccine have been found and administered."

"So he can't harm anyone as the Demonicos..." Will frowned and added, "Except with the demonic strength, talons, and the tongue-thing."

The Prefect smiled. "Except for those... No." His smile faded, the silence growing between them.

"Chapel used him. He'd been using him for years, grooming him to be the Demonicos that would smite all his enemies and bring Lilith to her knees."

"As it was prophesied."

"I can't help but feel... sorry for Raeborne."

"Sympathy for the devil," the Prefect murmured questioningly. He sat down and stared back at Will with a gentle expression that said he understood far more than Will intended, and that he was simply waiting for Will to follow the thought process through to the logical conclusion.

"Lilith..." Will broke on the words as images of his dead son came unbidden. "She did terrible things too over thousands of years, and yet you gave her a second chance." He straightened as a new thought came to him. "The second of her Marks of Daggoth disappeared when she spared Raeborne's life."

The Prefect smiled. "Then perhaps it is God's will that he lives."

"Except he won't without the Darklight."

The Prefect nodded his head slowly. "Dr. Raeborne, the father, believes he can find a way to reduce the amount of Darklight needed for his son to survive." Another calculating look followed that statement and Will frowned, wondering why the Prefect was telling him this. "If I agree to fund the research then I would need someone willing to mentor Anders Raeborne, to help him overcome his anger and Chapel's grooming, and find peace within himself."

"Someone?" Will narrowed his eyes. "You mean me?"

"The prophesy speaks of more than Lilith. It speaks also of her brethren, of some of the Fallen joining with her in the fight for good, and humanity."

Glancing back across at the monitor, Will watched as Raeborne doubled over in pain, arms still wrapped around his torso. He recalled Chapel's words, calling Raeborne so desperate for answers that he would believe anything you preach. Chapel could be very persuasive when he set his mind to it and Will realized that Anders Raeborne had never really stood a chance once Chapel began polluting his thoughts, inciting his anger at the slights and injustices given by his fellow scientists, and even from his own father.

Will nodded his agreement and continued to stare at the lost and frightened man long after the Prefect had left him alone with his thoughts.

***

Anders snarled as his father entered the room alongside another man that Anders recalled from his earlier battles with Lilith. He could feel his skin crawling with the need for Darklight, aware that he had paid for his immortality at a cost that might be too high a price for anyone to pay - even The Faith. Their whole existence was to destroy the very thing that he had become, so he still didn't understand why Lilith had let him live. She ought to have killed him outright, no doubt as Chapel had commanded when The Faith believed that Chapel was on their side.

They hadn't figured out Chapel's betrayal until it was almost too late but Anders had already begun to suspect that Chapel would betray him too. The temptation to listen in on Chapel gloating over his capture of Lilith and William Shaw had confirmed that suspicion, making him realize that Chapel considered him just as expendable as the rest of the humanity.

The truth had hurt almost as much as the lies that had seen his life work and all its accolades stolen from him. Once more he had been used, unaware that he would be the cause of the terrible plague that swept the city, though he had to admit that he might not have cared only a few days ago. Now he felt as if he was coming out from beneath a dark cloud, and the devastation he had caused seemed overwhelming. Hundreds had already died and only the cure they had created from fluid taken from his brain would save the rest.

When had he lost sight of all the vows he had made as a doctor to do no harm? When had he started to justify using those already dying as guinea pigs for his human trials of the Darklight taken from Lilith? The fact that he had extended their lives with the treatment was immaterial when compared with the quality of life bestowed upon them: insanity and a slower, more painful death instead of the quicker death that had awaited them as their virulent cancers progressed.

And now here was his father looking at him with that same pity and disappointment that had seen him cast out in the first place, just as Chapel had warned him all those months before his first fall from grace.

"Anders, The Faith will let you have Darklight if you are willing to listen to them and let them help you."

He exercised tight control over the pain rippling through his body. "Why would they want me to live?"

"They are offering you a second chance, Anders."

"Doesn't answer the question, dad."

Shaw stepped forward. "You can atone for what you've done. You can help us in the fight against other demons."

"In what capacity?"

Shaw smiled sadly and moved further into the room, unafraid even though Anders, as the Demonicos, had brought him to his knees and spoken to Lilith through the manipulation of his body. "As a doctor and, if need be, as the Demonicos."

"Anders, our work is still incomplete but we were on the right track. It was just the methods that were wrong and now that I know the truth, that Chapel had convinced you to follow his path, I can understand how and why it happened. I forgive you."

Pride prevented him from admitting that he had been duped by Chapel, that the older man had wormed his way into Anders' mind using honeyed words and affectionate touches. Anders felt ashamed now, knowing he had fallen into Chapel's bed just as easily, letting the older man twist him with soft caresses and kind words until he could no longer tell the difference between right and wrong. Chapel's spell was broken now and, for a moment, Anders was uncertain if he deserved to live.

"I thought he loved me," he whispered, too tired from the physical pain to hide the torture he felt deep into his very soul. "I thought he loved me."

"I love you, Anders. Let me help you," his father pleaded, and Anders wished he could die, ashamed by his actions over the past two years.

A hand reached out and touched his face, fingers curled around his cheek, the warmth spreading through his cold body and taking away a little of the pain. Anders hadn't heard Shaw approach but now he looked deep into Shaw's eyes, seeing more than casual interest hidden in their depths.

"Give yourself a chance to find redemption."

***

Months later:

Anders gritted his teeth and bit back on a cry of pain as the two needles slammed through his skull into his frontal lobe to deliver the Darklight. If the latest batch of tests came back positive then this would be the last time he would need to take the Darklight by that barbaric method. Future doses could be given by a smaller needle into the carotid artery with far less pain and mental trauma.

In the months since his capture, he'd slowly lowered the dose to the minimum level he needed to survive. Lilith helped him to control the changes between human and Demonicos form, her patience with him strangely soothing and perhaps a little weird considering she was known as 'the baby killer' in mythology, and he was very much a baby in demonic form. They trained together with Will as their mentor, and as the darkness gathered in all the corners of the Earth, called into being by the rift opened into Hell by Chapel, Anders wondered if his continuing involvement with The Faith had also been part of the Lilith prophesy. Perhaps it was long ordained that he would be part of the battle of Good against Evil.

The biggest change in his life came from a different source as the bond between him and Will grew with each passing day. It started with a casual slap or brush of fingers, but then touches began to linger; a hand left on his shoulder too long to be casual, a close press of bodies from shoulder to thigh as they spent their free time together watching movies. Then came the first kiss, a tentative press of lips that tingled all the way to Anders' toes, a soft exhalation of pleasure as their breath mingled, and the gentle hand that cupped the back of Anders' head as they moved in for another kiss.

Unlike Chapel, who had overwhelmed Anders with his desire, drawing him into his bed for almost animalistic sex as he rutted against him, Will took it slow and easy. He worshiped Anders' body with tender strokes and soft caresses, slowly easing him to the bed and covering him with his own body. Hips ground against hips, legs wrapping around thighs to drag their bodies closer, to increase the friction as they moved slowly yet forcefully towards that moment of glory.

He'd never felt more loved than when he was lying naked in Will's arms; his body heavy from release, and his semen cooling between their still heaving bodies. And as their heart rates slowed, his head buried against Will's vulnerable neck and throat, Anders would feel the vibration of soft words whispering, "Love you," before the lassitude of good sex drew him down to sleep.

It was at moments like this when he knew he was being forgiven for his transgressions and that, finally, he knew where he belonged.

END


End file.
